My solution to this problem is to cultivate habits.
For example, I write or edit 500 words a day. That's enough to output more than 3.65 the size of a 50K words novel every year if one only write new words. However, with editing, it's more like a well crafted 50K words novel. (I don't write novels, just non-fiction essays, on a variety of subjects)
Another habit I built is to self quantify myself in various dimension such as sleep/awake time, weight, steps, blood pressure, pulse rate, and blood sugar everyday. The result is almost 70 days worth of data. Every 21 days, I add new data points to measure. Next will probably involves sleep quality rating. I used the self quantification habit to keep tab on my health and conduct scientific experiment.
I also learn using anki, a spaced repetition software, helping me remembering anything from programming facts to the multiplication table to spelling errors I made. I used khanacademy to review my mathematical knowledge, because it have a spaced repetition system built into it.
I also used khanacademy to learn math(73% complete already!), but that's a medium-long term project that will get finished eventually. Reviewing math, on the other hand, is what you do for life, at least until the math becomes so deeply ingrained into your mind that you don't need to study them anymore.
My rule for adding habits is to wait every 21 days before adding new ones. It's also important to make sure you don't have too many habits to maintain, as they impose a cognitive burden. If you can reduce them to code or programs, do it.
Another thing to remember is that habit formation really depend on the habits and the person. Some people forms habits better than others, while some habits are easier to do. The rule of thumb is that the easier the task, the easier to form habit. For example, doing situps doing commercial breaks on television is much harder than drinking a glass of milk everyday. So, 21 days isn't a magical day when your effort to do something everyday becomes a habit. It's just a nice round number to use so that you won't be overwhelmed trying to add several new habits in a really short period of time.
Speaking as someone who does write novels, I can't agree more.
Cultivating that habit of 2,000 words a day in my first year of NaNoWriMo made all the difference in my victory. The almost half a million words of fiction written since then (2008) only came about through such day- and hour-sized persistence over a long period of time.
You may not need it anymore but my startup is trying to get people to where you've gotten. In the case of NaNoWriMo, the idea is to force yourself to spread out the writing over the whole month: http://blog.beeminder.com/nanowrimo
I happened to have looked into your service in regards to tracking word count, but had some trouble figuring it out and making it fit into my workflow.
I'll check it out again, though, as I want to get back into exercising this month. Thanks for the reminder!
Are you me? I do, or have done, almost everything on this list.
My rule for adding habits is to wait every 21 days before adding new ones. It's also important to make sure you don't have too many habits to maintain, as they impose a cognitive burden. If you can reduce them to code or programs, do it.
Couldn't agree more. I have a very hard time maintaining more than 10 total daily habits or about 90-120 mins of daily habits.
What do you use for your quantified self measurements, in terms of devices, apps, etc?
I am thinking of moving all the data collection to my personal site, as libreoffice clerical mistakes cost me a day of nap data(then I got a double whammy from not being able to find my blood pressure cuff the other day).
How do you track your sleep time and blood sugar? I found with the zeo it fell off too much and the fitbit I forgot too much during the half-asleep state your in before you go to sleep.
My sleep data is not granular since I lack a zeo, so it's literally time I go to sleep and time I got to bed. Blood sugar is basically measured with a gulcose meter.
In short, it basically exploits human cognitive architecture to provide an extremely efficient means of learning information. Two principles in operation are spaced repetition and the forgetting curve. Our knowledge tend to decay at an exponential rate. The trick is to study them right before you forget them. Thus, it free you from the drudgery of studying what you already know. It could be done by a human as a habit, but that isn't practical. That's why computers does it for us.
That's how Khan Academy works too, in regard to reviewing problems, or so I am told.
I really struggle with analysis paralysis as well.
The best treatment I've found when realizing that I'm stuck is to identify the smallest viable action I can take to move the project forward. Often tackling this task is enough to overcome the static friction and get the project moving again. At which point I'm fully immersed in the project context and the larger issues somehow seem less formidable.
On a micro scale, I use pomodoros for this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique), but on a bigger scale, I often find that I'm subconsciously weighed down by worrying about things that I'm not currently doing anything on. Have to remind myself to just get moving and figure things out as I go.
My long streaks of working out almost always start with a couple days at the gym basically screwing around. I know it's not optimal, but it's something, and I gradually get more intentional and serious as I keep going.
Yeah, when I was stuck writing up my thesis, I found it helpful to begin just by something silly. Things like tweaking the layout, or rewording or spot checking parts I'd already written, helped me get in the flow again.
That pretty much sums up my whole life right now on every front. I have a good-paying job (a major change from two years ago) that I'm absolutely frozen in figuring out how to get things done. More than once, I've considered leaving for a lower-paying job where there's less decision-making.
Congrats on the job. If it helps, from what I've seen at a lot of higher levels of companies and organizations, no one really knows what they're doing. You're probably also suffering from the Dunning-Kruger effect [1] and are doing better than you think you are.
Forgive me, after a brief look over the Wikipedia article surely it's the opposite of that? "unskilled individuals suffer from illusory superiority, mistakenly rating their ability much higher than average" - so they think they're better than they are, whereas you're suggesting they're doing better than they think they are.
I've always thought that the "trough of sorrow" should really be re-cast as the "personal trough[s] of sorrow," i.e. every day, every decision is confronted by doubt, and you have to continually overcome the fear of failure.
This is exacerbated by the fact that you're constantly confronted with stories about other people / teams / companies that are "crushing it."
The good news is that it really does get easier with practice and repetition. Kind of like jumping into a freezing cold pool for swim practice. After the first couple of times you realize, "hey, I didn't drown," which makes the next few times easier. It never gets easy, just easier than when you started.
Do something. Even if it’s the wrong thing, just do something. It might not be as wrong as you think, and if it is, you can adjust and do better next time.
Hiring workers first as paid interns, with an option to convert to FTE later, allows the worker and the people in the organization to feel each other out and ensure a good fit of both personality and skillsets. If the worker doesn't fit in, then it saves both the group and the individual from a stressful work environment, and you can keep trying until you find the right person.
Even doing the wrong thing works out, and sometimes better than doing the right thing. More importantly, you're making space in your life, schedule, and mind, for what it is you want to do. This allows people to try something out, play with the ideas, and understand the important factors in making the decision later.
Many people share a similar philosophy when buying durable goods[1] - buy a cheaper/low-end model, and when it breaks you buy a higher-quality model. Or, if the higher-quality model isn't actually higher quality, but is simply more expensive, you know to buy the cheap one.
This only works for unskilled workers in a bad job climate as they're desperate. You're not going to be hiring a skilled programmer with that. People don't quit their job for a paid internship.
Anyway, what's the point? You can just fire them if it's not working out.
> The moral of the story of Narcissus, told as a warning for the very people who refuse to hear it as such, is that how Narcissus came to be is irrelevant. What was important was what he did, and what he did---- was nothing.
For example, I write or edit 500 words a day. That's enough to output more than 3.65 the size of a 50K words novel every year if one only write new words. However, with editing, it's more like a well crafted 50K words novel. (I don't write novels, just non-fiction essays, on a variety of subjects)
Another habit I built is to self quantify myself in various dimension such as sleep/awake time, weight, steps, blood pressure, pulse rate, and blood sugar everyday. The result is almost 70 days worth of data. Every 21 days, I add new data points to measure. Next will probably involves sleep quality rating. I used the self quantification habit to keep tab on my health and conduct scientific experiment.
I also learn using anki, a spaced repetition software, helping me remembering anything from programming facts to the multiplication table to spelling errors I made. I used khanacademy to review my mathematical knowledge, because it have a spaced repetition system built into it.
I also used khanacademy to learn math(73% complete already!), but that's a medium-long term project that will get finished eventually. Reviewing math, on the other hand, is what you do for life, at least until the math becomes so deeply ingrained into your mind that you don't need to study them anymore.
My rule for adding habits is to wait every 21 days before adding new ones. It's also important to make sure you don't have too many habits to maintain, as they impose a cognitive burden. If you can reduce them to code or programs, do it.
Another thing to remember is that habit formation really depend on the habits and the person. Some people forms habits better than others, while some habits are easier to do. The rule of thumb is that the easier the task, the easier to form habit. For example, doing situps doing commercial breaks on television is much harder than drinking a glass of milk everyday. So, 21 days isn't a magical day when your effort to do something everyday becomes a habit. It's just a nice round number to use so that you won't be overwhelmed trying to add several new habits in a really short period of time.